Forest use on video

How we like machines huh! I don't know if it's a matter of engineers or what, but the thing is that we like them. There is nothing like watching them work to learn firsthand how everything that foresters propose on paper is executed in reality.

Because from the paper to the mountain there is an abyss. Not just because It's hard to imagine how a huge machine can enter a forest without destroying everything and that after a year you barely notice that it was actually there. There is also an abyss in the sense that, without knowing firsthand how, it is very difficult to get it right in what you intend to do.

We often complain about the passivity and inaction of the Administration, a problem that is often more pressing in the forestry sector. But I have sometimes had the feeling that this passivity may have its origin in a alarming detachment from what is happening in real time in the mountains.

I'm going to tell you something that's true. I'm sure you don't believe me, but it really happened to me. Once, in an undetermined region of the Spanish geography, someone proposed to follow up on an exploitation (and it wasn't in Castilla y León, ahem). It was a public utility forest located in a forest section that had been without any intervention for some time immemorial, other than specific things, such as those mandatory to prevent fires. And because they were mandatory otherwise... In that section there were large areas of typical repopulation pine forest. And as such, a clear one wouldn't have hurt him. The normal thing is that no action is taken because logging companies do not see it profitable and therefore there are no public funds to cut. In this case, several companies confirmed to me that if there was an auction there, they would go. I'm saying this to show the passivity I was talking about.

Well, when the time came to make this test, it turned out that nobody (the forestry engineer responsible for the forestry section included) I had seen forest exploitation before. And they didn't know (those in charge of course) how it was organized. And me there. A humble technician with an internship contract who said something like “well, if a truck is going to come tomorrow, we'll have to open a street and so on...” All with a small mouth and as if whispering, they wouldn't think I was on the list or something! It's all very shameful...

So, I was going to describe how forestry work is organized and carried out in the forest. But there's nothing like watching it live!

1. Manual gripping and processing (chainsaw)

2. Apeing and mechanized processing (harvester/processor)

3. Demonstrating with a tow tractor

4. Demonstrating with a self-loading tractor

5. Flood with draft animal

6. Chipping of scraps from cuts

I hope this brief introduction to forestry has piqued your curiosity, but not as much as taking photos in front of a processor.

News taken from: quedamosenlaencina.com